400 ICOSANDRIA— POLYGYNIA. llubus. 



Shrub. July, August. 



Stems truly shrubby, of a dark red or purple, strongly angular, 

 with intermediate furrows, many feet in length, tough and 

 woody, biennial, if not perennial, flowering the second year, 

 branched, leafy ; the barren ones smooth, arched, and some- 

 times taking root at the extremity; the others erect, and 

 slightly downy at the upper part. Prickles numerous on the 

 angles of the stems, sharp and strongly hooked, reddish. 

 Leaves firm and durable, almost evergreen, of 5 ovate-oblong, 

 acute, or pointed, sharply and unequally serrated leajlets; which 

 are dark green, smooth, or slightly hairy above ; snow-white, 

 finely downy, and strongly veined, with a prickly rib, beneath ; 

 the terminal one largest, with a long partial stalk ; 2 next with 

 much shorter partial stalks, each of which bears a considerably 

 smaller, nearly sessile, leaflet, so that the whole leaf is strictly 

 pedate, the uppermost on the flowering stems only being ter- 

 nate, or even simple. On the same branch are sometimes seen 

 a few leaves that are pale green at the back, and merely hairy, 

 not at all cottony, or white. Footstalks in some degree hairy, 

 all beset with strongly hooked prickles. Stipulas bristle-shaped, 

 hairy, in pairs upon each footstalk near the base. Clusters erect, 

 oblong, rather densely panicled, twice compound, many- 

 flowered ; their branches and stalks rather angular, white, and 

 finely downy, without glandular hairs. Bracteas solitary, linear- 

 lanceolate, white or hoary. Fl. erect, handsome. Cuhjx downy 

 all over, reflexed in the flower, as well as in fruit, destitute of 

 prickles, and of glandular hairs. Petals of a delicate pink, 

 rarely if ever white. The excellent authors of the " Rubi Ger- 

 viaitici," on the contrary, find them generally white. Stamens 

 red. Berry nearly globular, of very numerous purplish-black, 

 smooth juicy grains, of a sweet but mawkish flavour, ripened 

 late in autumn. 



Several reputed varieties of this species, almost equally common, 

 have been observed in Britain, differing in the shape and pu- 

 bescence of their lecifiets, not to mention other characters. 

 These have recently been proposed as species, in a very able 

 work, with excellent plates partially coloured, by Dr. A. Weihe 

 and Professor Ch. G. Nees ab Esenbeck, of Bonn, under the title 

 of Ruhi Germanici. Some of them were sent me from Shroj)- 

 shire by the Rev. E. Williams in 1801 , and others have been no- 

 ticed, long since, by Mr. E. Forster, Mr. Borrcr and Mr. Bicheno, 

 who have all favoured me with specimens accompanied by valuable 

 remarks as usual. Mr. Thomas Furly Forster has also been long 

 attentive to the same subject. Mr. Bicheno recommends a new 

 arrangement of all the species of this genus, which is here nearly 

 adopted. If 1 do not go quite so far as the writers of the above 



- work, in the received number of species, my reasons will appear 



